TIPS FOR HEALTHY COOKING
How you cook your healthy food is important, since even the best-tasting, healthiest ingredients can be ruined through improper kitchen practices. The biggest problems are overcooking, using too-high heat, and overheating certain types of oils. Consider the following guidelines:

 

 

 
  • Meats, fish, and poultry can be oven- or pan-roasted, quickly grilled, and often cooked in their own juices. Fish is especially healthy when lightly steamed or poached and, when fresh and wild, can be eaten raw. Less oil or butter is needed for pan-cooking meats because they often contain their own fats. It’s also important to avoid using high heat for too long. For instance when grilling a steak or lamb, trim off as much fat as possible and turn it every minute or so to prevent the excess formation of chemicals that can be harmful to your health. When you are grilling vegetables, turn them often as well. Ground meat should be bought fresh and cooked thoroughly as soon as possible. Many meat departments grind meat in the morning, so buy ground meats early in the day and cook or freeze them right away.
  • The worst method for cooking is deep fat or high-heat frying using vegetable oils. While many healthy foods may be lightly sautéed in butter or olive oil, deep-frying overheats the oil and can be very dangerous to your health. In addition, the high heat may destroy other nutrients in the food itself. Coconut oil or organic lard is also acceptable when medium to higher heat sautéing.
  • Vegetables can be steamed, stir-fried in olive oil, roasted, baked, or grilled. Cook vegetables minimally to avoid destroying nutrients—they also taste better when not overcooked. If boiling or steaming, use as little water as possible to avoid the loss of nutrients through the water. Slow-cooked vegetable stews will contain much of the minerals and heat-resistant vitamins in the liquid while some heat-sensitive vitamins will be lost. Don’t throw out the water from your steamed vegetables. Either drink it or use it for a soup base or in a smoothie.
  • Eggs can be soft- or hard-boiled, or cooked sunny-side up, over-easy, poached, or lightly scrambled. Letting the yolk remain soft is not only tastier but is healthier because heat-sensitive compounds are retained. Make sure the egg white cooks slightly because it’s better for the intestines.
  • Use monounsaturated and saturated fats for cooking as they are not sensitive to heat. Coconut oil and butter are the safest fats for cooking, followed by olive oil, lard, and duck fat; the last three contain some polyunsaturated fats so care should be taken to not heat too high. Most other fats are high in polyunsaturated oils and very prone to oxidizing when exposed to heat, producing free radicals—avoid corn, safflower, sesame, peanut, and canola oils.